478 Instances of the Effects 



We see, by the above extracts, that several very important 

 rivers take their rise, not on the summit of mountains fed by 

 snows and ice, as the Rhine and the Rhone, but in the low 

 sandy plains of Lithuania; and that the accumulation of 

 waters which form them takes place from the action which 

 vegetation exercises on the humidity of the atmosphere. Spe- 

 culation might hence form several interesting conclusions 

 respecting the changes which would ensue could the American 

 continent, or even Lithuania, be completely cleared of its 

 woods, and the deserts of the south be planted with forests. 



But Mr. Lyell {Principles of Geology, ii. 102. et seq.) has 

 argued out the point, and shown, what the memoir of De 

 Brincken also states incidentally, that humidity and vegetation 

 act reciprocally on each other. The leafy trees, which must 

 have the greatest share in the action upon the atmosphere, 

 grow in the marshy and damp spots of the forest of Bialo- 

 wicza. It may be allowable to refer to Dr. Kelly's opinion, 

 before quoted, to allege that forests alone are not the causes 

 of cold or moisture. It has been stated by Malte-Brun that 

 the winds in Poland blow, three fourths of the year, from the 

 west, and that they are always humid ; and that the north 

 and south winds are both cold, the former moist ; and that 

 the east wind brings the greatest cold. (Geog. Univ., tome iii. 

 p. 625.) * 



* The west winds in Poland are unhealthy. Agreeably to the known 

 electric conditions of west winds, we find that Poland is a country where 

 electrical phenomena are exceedingly common. Globes of fire, parhelia, 

 falling stars, the aurora borealis, violent rains and winds, are noticed as 

 characteristic of the climate. Amongst other occurrences noticed by 

 Tylkowski is a ball of fire which seemed to detach itself from the moon. 

 Reinzer, quoted by R. Zaczinsky and Malte-Brun, states that King Ula- 

 dislas Jagellon was once enveloped, with his suite, in an electric cloud : 

 this must have been in the beginning of the fourteenth century. More 

 modern instances of the same phenomena are stated of Saussure, in the 

 Alps j of M. Allemand, on May 3. 1821, whose hat, hand, and umbrella 

 were, in a thunder storm, enveloped with a luminous phosphoric matter, 

 in the canton of Neufchatel. (Bibliotheque Univ., xvii. 154.) But the most 

 extraordinary instance I have met with is the following, for which I am 

 indebted to the editor, who had received it from Dr. Johnston of Berwick 

 upon Tweed. It will be concluded, perhaps, that this latter case is a proof 

 of terrestrial disturbance sufficient to connect it with my essays on me- 

 teoric phenomena. To say the truth, this whole paper, and several other 

 detached ones, which may appear, are purposely intended to have such 

 connection ; and my object in quoting this example is to unite it with the 

 electrical phenomena of Poland, and the prevalence there of west winds. 



Remarkable Recession of the Sea at Montrose. — " 1572. In this mene 

 tyme wes ane greit feirlie in Montrois. Be the space of sex houris, the 

 watter thairof wes dry in the sey ; and during the quhilk space the peopill 

 past within the said sey, and got sundrie fisches ; and efter the quhilk space, 

 the peopill on the sands persewand the wattir as ane popill pitt, fra the 



